‘Highland View’ reaches new heights

Media Release June 27, 2011 1

‘Highland View’ reaches new heights – NZ winner of leading Australasian farm managers’ award

Personal and business performance benchmarking has unlocked the key to success for Hawke’s Bay farmer Mark Watson of ‘Highland View’ – winner of Rabobank’s prestigious 2011 Farm Managers Program business development award.

Recognised for his ‘improvement plan’ which has been executed across all levels of the farming operation, Mr Watson has successfully driven results into his farm business, resulting in higher productivity gains.

The Rabobank Farm Managers Program is a business management course designed to develop the operational and strategic business skills of young farmers who represent the next generation of leading farm business owners. Now in its sixth year, the 2011 Program was held in Brisbane this month, attended by 30 participants from both islands of New Zealand and all states of Australia and representing a wide range of agricultural commodities.

Receiving the prize at the program dinner held in Brisbane, Mr Watson said the course had far exceeded his expectations. “It blew me away how professional the course is – it goes beyond farming and delves into business and personality assessments so you get a very well-rounded assessment of how to run your enterprise,” he said.

“My Farm Managers project was focused on my ‘personal improvement plan’ which explored my leadership style, emotional intelligence, time management and communication. “The second part of the project was my ‘business improvement plan’ which involved the development of a strategic business plan that the whole business team has had input in to.”

Mr Watson manages his family farming business located in Hawke’s Bay on the east coast of New Zealand. The operation winters 9,000 stock units on 750 hectares of rolling to medium-steep summer dry country. The enterprise is mainly a margin trading business, which includes 80 dairy carryover cows, 500 two-year old bulls and steers, 200 yearling stags and finishes approximately 8,500 lambs/hoggets.

“It’s astounding to see how small changes can really make a big difference to your business – both personally, and professionally,” Mr Watson said. “Big changes don’t happen overnight but the little things you nudge away at will make a positive difference in a big way.”

Rabobank Farm Managers Program director Angus Taylor – also one of the award judges – said Mr Watson’s personal and business productivity plan had a positive impact on his business “by weeding out” certain behaviour traits. This has helped influence his business productivity for the better

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